Catechism of the Catholic Church

1074 "The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows." ¹³ It is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the People of God. "Catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of men." ¹⁴

1075 Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ (It is "mystagogy.") by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the "sacraments" to the "mysteries." Such catechesis is to be presented by local and regional catechisms. This Catechism, which aims to serve the whole Church in all the diversity of her rites and cultures, ¹⁵ will present what is fundamental and common to the whole Church in the liturgy as mystery and as celebration (Section One), and then the seven sacraments and the sacramentals (Section Two).

1 Eph 1:9.

2 Eph 3:9; cf. 3:4.

3 SC 5 § 2; cf. St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 138, 2: PL 37, 1784-1785.

4 SC 2.

5 Cf. Jn 17:4.

6 Cf. Lk 1:23; Acts 13:2; Rom 15:16, 27; 2 Cor 9:12; Phil 2:14-17, 25, 30.

7 Cf. Heb 8:2, 6.

8 SC 7 § 2-3.

9 SC 11.

10 SC 9.

11 Eph 2:4; 3:16-17.

12 Eph 6:18.

13 SC 10.

14 John Paul II, CT 23.

15 Cf. SC 3-4.